Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla joins Cong, slams Modi
New Delhi: Having ended her 32-year-long association with BJP, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla on THursday joined Congress and slammed Narendra Modi saying his promise of serving the country is nothing but “plain dishonesty”. Hitting out at Modi, Shukla said the BJP has declared such a person its prime ministerial candidate “who did not fulfill the duty of a husband or rajdharma when he was chief minister. If such a person talks about discharging rashtradharma, I will call it plain dishonesty”. Welcoming her into party fold, AICC general secretary in-charge Janardan Dwivedi said her joining Congress has symbolical value as “Karuna Shukla, who was brought up imbibing the value system of a person, who had immense contribution in the making of BJP has severed ties from that party because of bad culture that came there in recent years. “The event has a bigger dimension for us as leaving that culture, she is joining Congress making an exit from one particular value system to the other.” 63-year-old Shukla, who became MLA from BJP first in 1993 and was one of the senior leaders in Chhattisgarh, was unhappy over being sidelined in the party and had openly criticised the BJP leadership including Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on many occasions in recent past. A former MP from Janjgir constituency of Chhattisgarh, she had lost the 2009 elections from Korba to Charan Das Mahant of Congress. (PTI)
plying to a question, Shankhwalkar said Tejpal’s lawyer can meet his client whenever he wants. The 50-year-old journalist has been behind bars for allegedly raping a junior woman colleague during an event in Goa in November last year. (PTI)
Maha’s move to regularise slums till 2000 a poll gimmick:Medha Patkar
Mumbai: Social activist and AAP leader Medha Patkar on Thursday dubbed the decision of Maharashtra government to regularise slums built till 2000 as an “election gimmick” mocking the poor people in the city. “The Congress-NCP coalition had fought three elections on the poll promise of homes to slum dwellers but had failed to act on it for more than a decade,” Patkar told reporters here. She wondered how the decision will be implemented since the issue is sub-judice. “Rajiv Aavas Yojana (RAY) envisages property rights to the slum dwellers. The cut off date is 2009.. the JNNURM funds have been utilised maximum in Pimpri-Chinchwad, the stronghold of NCP,” she alleged. Patkar also said that Union Housing minister Kumari Selja had written to the state government several times that pace of implementation of RAY needed to be accelerated. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had replied to the Union Minister that the slow pace of implementation was because shortage of land and cost escalation in construction of dwelling units, she said. Patkar claimed 30,000 acre land was under the control of 30 individuals and institutions and the government could have easily taken control of it. The government has no plan how it will redevelop slums till the year 2000, she alleged. (PTI)
Appointment of new AP CS in limbo as govt remains ‘on paper’
Hyderabad: Uncertainty looms over appointment of new chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh as the state remains virtually “non-existent” for all practical purposes. Incumbent Chief Secretary Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, an IAS officer of 1979 batch, is due to retire on Fridayon attaining the age of superannuation. Though it is widely being expected that Mohanty may get a three-month extension since the state bifurcation process is on, he is said to be reluctant to continue. “I don’t want to continue even for a minute (after 28th),” Mohanty has been reportedly telling his junior bureaucrats. Mohanty reportedly told them that he would hand over the charge to another officer and retire on the due date. Had the Chief Minister been in place, he would have taken a call on the appointment of Chief Secretary, the head of state bureaucracy, by now. However, the “caretaker” chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is said to have refused to take a decision on the matter when a set of names of eligible officers was referred to him.(PTI)
Four jailed for life for killing gurdwara head priest
New Delhi: Four persons, including a woman, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for strangulating the head priest of a gurdwara here over “hostilities” between them regarding control of gurdwaras in several cities including the capital. Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau held Sukhpal Singh, 28, Ranjeet Singh, 28, Jasbir Kaur, 42, and her son Malkit Singh, 22, who all belonged to different group, guilty of the offences of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the IPC. They had murdered Baba Lakhbir Singh, the ‘mahant’ (head) of Gurdwara ‘Rub Da Kutta’ in Azadpur here, as he was made Head Granthi in place of Jasbir Kaur who was earlier nominated for the post. The victim and convicts belonged to two different groups which were part of ‘Buddha Dal’, a religious sect of ‘Nihang Sikhs’. “The circumstantial evidence conclusively establishes the common purpose/plan of the accused persons i.e. to finish Baba Lakhbir Singh so that reigns of the gurdwara were taken over by Jasbir Kaur who was forcibly removed and was already reeling under insult of being forcibly removed by the victim.” (PTI)